1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to integrated circuit operation in the presence of radiation.
2. Description of the Related Art
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) provide a set of government regulations (see Title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 121) that place specific limitations on the export of semiconductor devices having a specified radiation hardness to prevent the export of devices that might have usefulness in space-borne or military systems. Many space applications have radiation-hardened requirements due to the presence of radiation in the space environment that would cause the systems to fail. ITAR presents a problem for commercial electronics and semiconductors that happen to be radiation hard but have commercial applications world-wide.
Advances in semiconductor processes that have been adopted to improve the performance of products like microprocessors coincidentally make the products more radiation hard. Specifically, smaller transistors with thin oxides are much less susceptible to radiation than counterparts even a few years earlier. Thus, it is growing more likely that commercial semiconductors may become subject to export restrictions based on ITAR. It can be expensive and time consuming to determine the radiation hardness of a commercial semiconductor part, and many companies can afford neither the time nor the money to test for radiation hardness and prove ITAR compliance. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a cheap and easy way to be ITAR-compliant in commercial semiconductor devices without the time and expense of testing for ITAR compliance.